IAF flying officer accuses wing commander of sexual assault

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force is cooperating with the local police in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam in probing a complaint of alleged sexual assault that was lodged by a woman flying officer against a Wing Commander, an IAF official said.

A first information report or FIR has reportedly been filed in the case by the local police after the women officer of the IAF filed the complaint against the senior officer. Both the women officer and the Wing Commander are presently based in Srinagar. “We are aware of the case. The Air Force Station in Srinagar was approached by the local Budgam police station on the subject. We are fully cooperating towards this case,” a senior IAF official said.

The flying officer has said in her complaint that she has been suffering harassment, sexual assault and mental torture over the past two years, according to NDTV report.

The officer has said that at a New Year party at the officers’ mess on December 31, 2023, her senior asked if she had received the gift. When she said she had not, the Wing Commander said the gifts were in his room and took her there. When she asked where his family was, he said they were elsewhere.

The flying officer has alleged that her senior forced her into oral sex and molested her.

“I repeatedly asked him to stop doing it and tried to resist it in all ways possible. Finally, I pushed him and ran away. He said that he would meet me on Friday again when his family leaves,” she has said. The flying officer said it took her a while to register what happened to her. “I was afraid and didn’t know what to do as there were instances before also wherein I was discouraged to report. He visited my office after this incident... He behaved as if nothing happened and there was no sign of remorse in his eyes,” she said.

The woman officer said she reached out to two other women officers and they guided her to file a complaint.

“I can’t describe (the) mental agony, being an unmarried girl who joined forces and was treated in such (a) heinous manner,” she said.

Following her complaint, she said, a Colonel-rank officer was ordered to investigate the incident. The Wing Commander was made to sit down with her twice in January this year to record the statements, she has alleged. She has said she objected to the senior officer’s presence and later the investigation was closed to “hide mistakes of administration”.

She then filed a fresh application to the internal committee and it met two months later.

“The bias of Stn (Station) authorities to aid the sexual offender was very heart-breaking for me,” she has said, alleging that a medical examination was not done till she insisted multiple times.

“IC (internal committee) did not do its job properly as directions had come from higher formation to keep the result as neutral. Everyone was aiding the sexual offender,” the flying officer has said.

“I requested for interim relief and requested for leave multiple times but I was denied leave each time,” she said, alleging that her requests for a different posting for herself or the Wing Commander were not heeded either.

“I am forced to socialise with these people and attend events with my abuser...While he is enjoying it. I am getting harassed in (the) hands of authorities on a daily basis,” she has said.